We don’t want yet another app on our phones

As Benedict Evans, a mobile technology analyst from Andreessen-Horowitz, says: the best quick and dirty method of determining whether or not you need to build your own app is this: are your users likely to keep your app’s shortcut on their home screens?

The home screen is the screen of icons you see when you turn on your phone, not counting any screens that you can access by swiping left or right. I, for example, have about 22 app shortcuts on my home screen. It’s packed.

I really like my local veterinarian, accountant, and pizza restaurant, but their apps are just not going to get a spot on my home screen.

Getting on the home screen

There are two key places where your business is on the home screen, even if indirectly. These places are in web search and the web browser. The web browser is usually installed by default on smartphone home screens. Also, and perhaps more important, is the web search bar at the top. I am just a tap and some typing away from finding your mobile website.

This isn’t quite the same as having your app on my phone, but it’s good enough unless you spend the thousands of dollars necessary to make a mobile app and your app is actually compelling or useful enough for me to use regularly.

Don’t rely on your users to download your app. Your website is always there and always on…just waiting for someone to visit your URL. There’s nothing to install, no permissions required to be set, no clutter to put on their phone. They just visit your URL, and they’re in.